Saudi deputy crown prince to meet UN chief over Yemen child deaths

PanARMENIAN.Net - Saudi Arabia's powerful deputy crown prince is due to meet UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday, June 22 the kingdom's ambassador said, after the United Nations infuriated Riyadh by briefly blacklisting a Saudi-led coalition for killing children in Yemen, Reuters reports.

Mohammed bin Salman will be in New York next week for meetings with business leaders after a visit to the U.S. West Coast, UN officials told Reuters.

"An official request has come to the office of the secretary-general for a meeting with the deputy crown prince and as soon as we're able to confirm something we shall," U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

Saudi UN Ambassador Abdallah Al-Mouallimi told Reuters that the meeting had been confirmed for Wednesday.

Dujarric said that the UN had not yet responded to a June 8 letter to Ban from Mouallimi on behalf of the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen. The letter asked the United Nations to reveal details on the sources of information for its report on violations of child rights during armed conflicts, Reuters says.

Dujarric said this week the United Nations would not disclose those sources.

The UN report on children and armed conflict said the coalition, which began an air campaign in March 2015 to defeat Iran-allied Houthi rebels, was responsible for 60 percent of child deaths and injuries in the conflict last year, killing 510 and wounding 667.

Riyadh, a major UN donor, had threatened to cut off funding to a Palestinian aid program and other UN initiatives. Saudi Arabia has denied using threats, although Ban himself confirmed the initial report.